In 1994, spelunkers in south-central France stumbled upon an uncharted system of caves that had been hidden for 20,000 years by a rock slide. They squeezed in and found a particularly beautiful world of geological concretions, scattered animal bones, fossils, and, to their stupefaction, hundreds of Paleolithic paintings and drawings.

Scientists were called in, and they dated the images back as far as 32,000 years, making them the earliest known artworks ever discovered: the birth, in effect, of human creativity. The cave -- named Chauvet for one of its discoverers -- was closed to all but selected scientists. Closed, that is, until the inimitable Werner Herzog and a tiny crew were allowed in to shoot footage of its marvels --

in 3D

.

That film,

"Cave of Forgotten Dreams,"

is everything we expect from a Herzog documentary: an exploration of the edges of human consciousness and experience; a haunting series of images explained and explored in Herzog’s drolly existential monotone; and revealing moments with unlikely people (one of the paleontologists is a former circus acrobat,

of course

).

3D, by the way, was a brilliantly apt choice: you feel as if you’re diving into the caves, as if you can reach out and touch the images, many of which were painted onto curved walls so as to create the effect of motion, particularly when seen, as they would have to have been, by torch light. It is, in a way, the first glimpse of the cinema, right there at the dawn of humankind. And it is utterly remarkable to see.